How to run a local SEO audit

The Local SEO Audit scores a website's local search health out of 100 and builds a report you can hand to a client or a prospect. Zeus checks the live site, Google search and Maps, the Google Business Profile, reviews, listings and backlinks. It works for any website.

How to run an audit

1. Go to SEO Tools → Local SEO Audit. You land on the New audit tab.
2. Enter the Target Website URL and Business Name.
3. Pick a Report Tone.
4. Add the Primary Location (for example Arcata, CA). The local ranking checks search from there. Without it, the audit can't check the map pack.
5. Optional: add Service Areas, Industry and Primary Services.
6. Click Summon Your SEO Audit. The cost shows on the button.

Most audits take a few minutes. A big site takes longer, because every page is crawled. The progress bar shows what Zeus is doing (for example "Crawling pages (45 of 120)"). You can leave the page: the audit saves its progress, carries on in the background and appears in Past audits when it's ready. When it's done you'll see the overall score, the section scores and the top 3 priorities, with View full report, Download PDF and Share link.

The form

• Target Website URL (required): the site to audit, for example https://example.com.
• Business Name (required): the business as it appears on Google. It's used to find the right Google Business Profile.
• Report Tone: Consultative, Direct, Technical or Friendly. It sets the style of the summary and the 30-day plan. The scores are the same whatever the tone.
• Primary Location (optional): the town the local checks search from.
• Service Areas (optional): other towns the business serves, separated by commas. Zeus checks the site has a page for each.
• Industry (optional): for example "Auto Detailing".
• Primary Services (optional): separated by commas. The first three become the local searches Zeus checks, such as "roof repair arcata". If you give fewer, the industry and the Google category fill in. At most 3 local searches are checked.

What it checks

• Local presence: whether the Google Business Profile is really this business (it must link to the website or share its phone number), claimed, categories, description, hours, photos and posts. Reviews: rating, count against the local competitors, new reviews in the last 90 days and owner replies. Phone number on the site against the profile. Map pack for each local search. Directory listings, and a page for each service area and service.
• On-page SEO: titles, meta descriptions, H1s and H2s, image alt text, internal links, canonical tag, whether Google can index the site, and placeholder text or typos, on the home page and every page in the site's sitemap and menu (up to 500 pages; thank-you, legal, cart and similar pages are skipped).
• Technical health: HTTPS, mobile, page speed and Core Web Vitals (real-visitor data when Google has it), XML sitemap, robots.txt, broken pages and links, and LocalBusiness structured data.
• Content: words per page, thin pages, whether the home page names the town and the services, and the blog.
• Search visibility: page-one rankings for the local searches, ranking for the business's own name, and keywords in the top 10.
• Backlinks & authority: how many websites link to the site.
• Answer engines: whether AI crawlers are blocked in robots.txt, llms.txt, business facts in structured data, and question-and-answer content.

Each check passes, needs work or fails. A slow or busy data source is asked again a little later, so a check is never skipped to save time. Only when a source keeps failing, or answers that it can't check this site, is that part marked Not checked, with the reason in the report's notes. It's left out of the score, never guessed. The report then lists every fix by impact and effort, plus a 30-day plan.

When the website is one of your clients

If the website or business name matches one of your clients, the audit is linked to that client. It also reuses what's already stored for that client: the Google Business Profile and review snapshots, the backlink snapshot, citation records and the latest map scan. The price is the same either way.

The PDF

The PDF is built when you download it, so it always uses the current design and your current branding:

• Growth and Agency plans: your agency's logo, color, name and contact details. ContentForge isn't mentioned.
• Starter plan (and trials): ContentForge branding.

It has a cover page, an executive summary with the score and top priorities, a section for each area, competitors, the recommendations table, the 30-day plan and page numbers.

Share a link to the report

Send the report as a link instead of a PDF. Anyone with the link can open the full report in their browser, with no sign-in.

1. Click Share link. It's under the score when an audit finishes, on each report in Past audits, and at the bottom of the report when you View it.
2. The link is copied for you ("Link copied"). Paste it into an email or a message. You can also click Copy or Open.

What the link looks like and shows:

• The address: https://your-client-domain/r/… when you have a client domain set up (Growth and Agency, see Client domain). Otherwise it's on the ContentForge address. The link is a long random code. It never contains the report ID, and it can't be guessed.
• The branding: the same as the PDF. On Growth and Agency it shows your logo, color, name and contact details, and ContentForge isn't mentioned. On Starter (and trials) it shows ContentForge branding.
• The report: the same report as View, built from the saved audit with your current branding. It doesn't run the audit again, it costs nothing, and it shows nothing else from your account.
• Search engines: the page tells Google and others not to list it.

The controls in the Share link box:

• Link works for: Never ends (the default), 30 days or 90 days, counted from when you choose it. You can change it any time.
• Viewed N times, last [date]: how many times the link has been opened. Only the number and the date are kept, nothing about who opened it. Link previews in chat apps (Slack, WhatsApp and so on) don't count.
• New link: makes a new link. The old one stops working straight away.
• Turn off link: the link stops working. Clicking Share link again later makes a new one.

Each report has one link at a time. Clicking Share link again gives you the same link, so a client never has two different links for the same report.

When someone opens a link that's turned off or past its end date, they see a page in your branding that says This report link is no longer active.

View and download later

Click the Past audits tab. Search by business name, website or report ID, or filter by date. For each report you can:

• View it in the app
• Open the full report in a new tab
• Download PDF
• Share link (see above)
• Delete it (its share link stops working)

An audit in progress shows what it's working on. A failed audit says why and has a Dismiss button.

Examples

• A prospect call tomorrow: audit the prospect's site with the Consultative tone and send the PDF with your logo.
• A new client's starting point: audit on day one, then again after 90 days to show the score going up.
• A technical client: use the Technical tone so the 30-day plan speaks to their web developer.

Limits and what it can't do

• Up to 500 pages are crawled, and up to 3 local searches are checked.
• Some hosts show crawlers a bot check instead of the page. Zeus then reads those pages once more itself. Pages it still can't read are never scored as "no title" or "no H1". If fewer than half the pages can be read, the site-wide checks (titles, descriptions, H1s, word counts, broken pages) are left out, and the report says Couldn't read the other pages properly with the reason. The home page checks always use the home page's own reading.
• It reads the live site and public Google data. It doesn't change anything.
• Audits run before October 2026 open in the new design. Checks they didn't collect show as Not checked.
• For a client's own Mount Olympus site, the Site Audit in the Site Dashboard checks the live pages for free. See Site audit.

Credits

One flat price per audit, shown on the button, whatever the website and however long it takes. If the audit fails, the credits are returned. Opening, viewing, downloading and sharing past reports is free.

You can also start an audit from a connected AI assistant, which shows the cost first. See Connect an AI assistant.

Who can use it

Owners and Admins, and Members who have the Local SEO Audit tool switched on (it's on unless an Owner or Admin turns it off). A Member limited to some clients sees only those clients' audits on Past audits, plus audits that match no client. Client people can't run audits.

Troubleshooting

• "Target website URL is required" or "Business name is required": fill in both required fields.
• "Please enter a valid URL (e.g., https://example.com)": check the address for typos and spaces.
• "Not enough credits. Buy credits to continue." or "Local SEO audit needs N credits — you have M. Buy credits to continue.": buy a credit pack or wait for your monthly credits.
• "The audit couldn't be finished: … Your credits were returned.": usually the website couldn't be reached or blocked the crawl. Open the site in your browser, then run it again.
• "Pages across the site: Not checked" or "Pages read: 2 of 20": the website's host or security blocked the crawler on most pages. The reason is shown next to it. Ask the web host to allow crawlers, then run the audit again.
• Parts say Not checked: a data source kept failing, or the site blocked it. The reason is in the report's notes. Run the audit again later if you need those parts.
• The wrong Google Business Profile: the audit only accepts a profile that links to the website or shares its phone number. Check the business name matches Google exactly.
• No map pack results: add a Primary Location.
• The PDF shows ContentForge branding: you're on the Starter plan or a trial. Your own branding needs Growth or Agency.
• "Tool access required": the Local SEO Audit tool is switched off for you.
• "This report link is no longer active": the link was turned off, replaced by a New link, passed its end date, or the report was deleted. Open the report in Past audits, click Share link and send the new link.
• The shared link shows ContentForge branding: you're on the Starter plan or a trial, the same as the PDF.
• The shared link is on the ContentForge address, not my domain: your client domain isn't set up and live yet, or you're not on Growth or Agency. Once it's live, open Share link again: the same link shows on your domain.
• "Too many requests" on a shared link: the link was opened a lot of times in a minute from one place. Wait a minute and open it again.
• "Report links need the database update": the database update for shared links hasn't been run yet.